The insights and emotional reactions of the sociodrama participants’ as recorded and

presented through the ΤΤ8 platform provided enlightening input for the work showcased

Here.

Specifically, the role-playing process of each recorded session - the act of embodying Otherness - has inspired me to create a human-centric series of video art.

Furthermore, listening to the sonification of the sessions led me to choose a minimalist and more abstract visual approach, a tone of voice similar to that of the recorded sounds.

My focus is on the humans of Eleusis and their collective experience as citizens and

members of a community that is trying to recover from trauma and redefine an identity.

Looking through a lens of empathy as the subjects are being ‘reflected’ into each other, is at

the core of the work.

My first step in the creative process was to look at a variety of locations, that would convey

the storytelling with a single frame.

In every chosen location Eleusis is manifested not as the backdrop but rather as the

epicenter of the human experience.

Each video consists of a single composition – an objective shot, where a human procession

appears in the frame to tell its story through a simple gesture.

The camera looks at its subject from a distance but the gaze is not detached, it is definitely

inclusive. It becomes witness to the collective drama.

The switch of roles amongst the participants, which is a crucial aspect of the socio drama

process becomes the closing act in each video of the series.

Very early in the process, I felt that in every composition the human action should be

presented through a manipulated sense of time.

Not only because it would contribute to creating dramatic and emotional tension, but

mainly because it would also highlight our subjective experience of time – time that stands

still, time that moves too fast or too slow, time then and time now, a sense of time referring

to the different eras of history and our memory.

Time is the crucial element that reveals and connects like a living tissue every single

fragment of the existence of Eleusis in our collective unconscious.